India Budget 2024: For railways, FM Sitharaman says 3 major economic corridor programmes to be implemented
File photo of an Indian Railways train.
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim Budget 2024 on Thursday (Feb 1). The railways ministry was allocated a total of Rs 2.55 lakh crore (2.5 trillion).
In her speech, Finance Minister Sitharaman said that three major economic corridor programmes will be implemented by the government. "These are energy, mineral and cement corridors; port connectivity corridors, and high traffic density corridors," Sitharaman said.
"The projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti for enabling multi-modal connectivity. They will improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost," Sitharaman said.
"The resultant decongestion of the high-traffic corridors will also help in improving operations of passenger trains, resulting in safety and higher travel speed for passengers," she added.
The finance minister also said that together with dedicated freight corridors, these three economic corridor programmes will accelerate India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and reduce logistic costs.
'40Ktrains to be converted to Vande Bharat standards'
During her interim Budget speech, Finance Minister Sitharaman said that 40,000 normal train bogeys will be converted to the Vande Bharat standards to enhance the safety, convenience and comfort of passengers.
"We have a fast-expanding middle class, and rapid urbanisation is taking place. Metro and NaMo Bharat can be the catalyst for the required urban transformation," she added.
This was Sitharaman's sixth Union Budget. She holds the title for presenting the longest budget speech in terms of duration.
However, this year's speech was the shortest, lasting57 minutes. Her budget speech in 2020 was two hours and 42 minutes long.
What happened in last year's budget?
In the previous year's Union Budget, the Modi government allocated a record Rs 2.4 lakh crore to the railways ministry for the financial year 2023-2024. This amount was nine times of what was allocated in FY 2013-14.